Kim Clijsters, right, bows out of Wimbledon after 14 years following her defeat to Angelique Kerber in the fourth round. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

Kim Clijsters, the four-times grand slam champion, bowed out at Wimbledon on Monday after 14 years competing as a junior and a senior at the event she regarded as her own special "Disneyland".

The Belgian, now 29, went down with a heavy defeat, beaten 6-1, 6-1 in 49 minutes by the 24-year-old German Angelique Kerber without gaining a single break point. Of course, we have heard it from Clijsters before. She walked away from the tour in 2007 only to return triumphant as the 2009 US Open champion. But this time, she says, it is final. She will retire after this year's US Open. She left Court Three, bags slung over her shoulders, head down after a desultory wave, seemingly unmoved by the significance of her exit and totally preoccupied by the reverse she had suffered. A response in stark contrast to that of the American Andy Roddick, who made an emotional departure after what most believe will be his last Wimbledon. "What I was thinking was probably about the match still," Clijsters explained afterwards. "Wasn't so much about the last time. Not at all actually. I didn't really think about that." Instead, she said, she was consumed by an unfamiliar helplessness. "I just had the feeling that there was absolutely nothing I could have done to have won that match I just felt like my opponent was better on every level."

But soon she had the wider picture, with memories stretching back to watching Wimbledon on television and her first games her as a junior in 1998. "It was such an amazing thing," she said. "It was to me like Disneyland was to another child. It was a beautiful thing."

Highs and lows, she said. No singles title at Wimbledon but a doubles title in 2003. "I won't be sorry about anything. I know that every time that I have played here, I have given my best, and that's the only thing that I can try. You know, some days it's good, some days it's great and some days it's not good enough. I'll never say I didn't work hard enough or I didn't practice enough."

Though unseeded, she was nevertheless considered the favourite against 8th seed Kerber. In the previous round, she benefited from the withdrawal through injury of Vera Zvonareva. With Clijsters up a set and leading 4-3 in the second, the Russian began to struggle with her breathing.

For all that, the grand task Clijsters had set herself was stiff if not Herculean. She came into the tournament with an abdominal injury.

This was only her second Wimbledon in six years, the result of an injury and then a retirement that lasted two and a half years.

But not even a deeply partisan crowd could pull her through this final match. Kerber, dictating everything hit harder and lower and flatter, ending points on both flanks with Clijsters no-where in the vicinity.

Clijsters didn't give up. At 5-0, with a humiliating bagel on the horizon, she saved a match point, launching a trademarked forehand winner down the ad court. She held the game, and earned some dignity, when Kerber hit a backhand wide. The crowd, recognising the futility of her position, reacted with a supportive cheer.

But it was palpably the beginning of the end, for Kerber remained steady serving for the match. Clisters quickly guided her first two service returns into the middle of the net. She rallied briefly for the third point, the exchange curtailed by a Kerber backhand which flashed past her forehand. Another first serve from Kerber and the agony was over as Cljisters hit a routine drive beyond the baseline. A kiss for Kerber at the net, a moment to pack up her things, and within two minutes the era of Kim Clijsters at Wimbledon had come and gone.